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Roland V-Combo VR-09-B 61-key Stage Performance Keyboard

61-key Portable Performance Keyboard with Organ, Piano, and Synth Sounds; Plus Effects, D-BEAM Sensor, Hands-on Controls, and Battery-powered Operation
$1,199.99

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Gig-ready Keys, Packed with Classic Sounds

Roland's V-Combo VR-09-B Live Performance Keyboard is a gigging musician's delight. The featherweight VR-09-B (it weighs just over 12 pounds) is basically three instruments in one — all with instantaneous, real-time hands-on control. Roland's acclaimed Virtual Tone Wheel Organ engine, complete with nine physical drawbars, nails the sound-generation process of vintage tonewheel organs in every way. Piano is a core sound, and the VR-09-B serves up a piano potpourri that covers every musical style. Included are classic EPs, along with essential vintage effects such as tremolo, phaser, wah, and tape delays. The epic acoustic grand features Roland's stereo multi-sampling for piano sounds that rival the company's dedicated stage pianos. The VR-09-B's SuperNATURAL synth engine is loaded with tons of ready-to-play synths, from vintage to modern.

Three top-level sound engines cover all the bases

Combining Roland's acclaimed Virtual Tone Wheel organ engine with SuperNATURAL-powered instruments and classic synths, the V-Combo VR-09-B will never leave you wanting for sounds. Whether you need a classic whirling organ (complete with leakage and click noise), a glossy EP, or an old-school SH-2 analog synth, you've got it all — and right at your fingertips. What's more, there's a whole host of cool effects onboard the VR-09-B to flesh out your tones, including compression, overdrive, amp emulators, phasers, and rotary cabinet emulators, including a cool Twin-Rotary effect.

Packed with the performance options you need

Whether you're rocking one of the V-Combo VR-09-B's classic synths or putting its Virtual Tone Wheel organ through its paces, you'll be delighted by the sheer usefulness of its front panel controls. A set of nine harmonic tone bars gives you all of the organ control you could ask for, and there are dedicated control sections for the VR-09's piano, synth, effects, and other sections, all bolstered by a large LCD screen. Then there's the D-BEAM optical controller and a 61-note keybed that's fast and responsive enough for any serious organ player.

Gig anywhere with this ultra-portable keyboard

How much would you expect a feature-packed keyboard like the Roland V-Combo VR-09-B to weigh? Twenty pounds? Thirty pounds? Not even close! Despite its extensive feature set, Roland managed to get the VR-09-B down to a svelte 12 lbs. 3 oz. But that's not all — the VR-09 can also run entirely on batteries for the ultimate portable playing experience. And Roland's free VR-09 iPad editor app gives you powerful, intuitive control of the VR-09-B's organ and synth sound engines right from your tablet's touchscreen. Gigging keyboardists here at Sweetwater love the Roland VR-09-B. We're confident you will, too!

Roland V-Combo VR-09-B Live Performance Keyboard Features:

  • Portable 61-note performance keyboard with pro sounds for all music styles
  • Dedicated panel sections give you immediate access to organ, piano, and synth sounds
  • Roland's Virtual Tone Wheel Organ delivers authentic vintage organ sounds
  • 9 drawbars make dialing in the perfect organ sound easy
  • 3 onboard rotary effects, including an aggressive rock rotary type
  • Vintage electric pianos and rich acoustic grand pianos
  • Broad selection of SuperNATURAL synth sounds, from vintage classics to modern must-haves
  • Onboard sound library expandable with free downloads from Roland's Axial website
  • Free downloadable iPad editor app for customizing organ and synth sounds
  • 7 simultaneous effects with dedicated real-time controls
  • D-BEAM optical controller for advanced performance options
  • Enhance your performances and practice sessions with rhythm patterns, metronome, USB audio recording/playback, and more
  • Gig-ready at just 12 lb. 3 oz.
  • Runs on AC or battery power

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Stage Keyboard
  • Sound Engine: Virtual Tone Wheel Organ, SuperNatural Synth, PCM Synth
  • Analog/Digital: Digital
  • Number of Keys: 61
  • Type of Keys: Synth Action
  • Velocity Sensitive: Yes
  • Other Controllers: Pitchbend/Modulation lever, D-Beam controller
  • Drawbars: 9 x Assignable (upper, lower)
  • Polyphony: 128 Notes
  • Number of Presets: 245 sounds, 52 rhythm patterns
  • Effects: Delay, Reverb, Overdrive, Chorus, Vibrato, Rotary,
  • Audio Recording: WAV files, 16-bit/44.1kHz
  • Audio Playback: WAV, AIFF, MP3
  • Storage: USB flash drive
  • Audio Inputs: 1 x 1/8" (aux in)
  • Audio Outputs: 2 x 1/4" (main out)
  • Headphones: 1 x 1/4"
  • USB: 1 x Type A, 1 x Type B
  • MIDI I/O: In/Out/USB
  • Pedal Inputs: 2 x 1/4" (damper, expression), 1 x 8-pin DIN (PK-9 pedalboard)
  • Software: iPad editor app
  • Power Source: AC adapter power supply (included) / 8 x AA batteries (Ni-MH)
  • Height: 4.18"
  • Width: 39.68"
  • Depth: 11.81"
  • Weight: 12.18 lbs.
  • Manufacturer Part Number: VR-09-B

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 4/5

The VR-09 - only board I need for my classic rock band

I play in a classic rock corporate band (weddings, parties, etc.), and I've been using the VR-09 EXCLUSIVELY for about 6 years. After 6 years, here are my thoughts on it:

- Portability can't be beat - at 12 lb, I can slide it into it's gig bag with one hand
- The keybed is smooth and responsive, ESPECIALLY for organ. The quick-trigger makes it so easy to do traditional B3 articulation. I've got a Yamaha MODX whose keys have such angular edges that organ smears and glisses are almost painful - not so with the VR-09, which is like butter
- Organ sound and configurability are fantastic. Compared to non-clonewheel (like the MODX, for example), it's no contest. I don't like using more than one keyboard, and so for gigs in another band where I use the MODX, I keep WISHING I had the VR-09 as a second keyboard. The only thing that I can do with the MODX is attach it to an iPad to use VB3m or some other clonewheel app. And there's NOTHING like grabbing those drawbars to tweak the sound realtime, just like the B3
- Piano, EP, strings, pads - they're not the best and can't compete with the Nord Piano, or even the Yamahas. But when you're playing keyboard in a 10-piece band (including a horn section), whether or not the decay on a piano sample is accurate or not is irrelevant. These sounds are ALL serviceable for the tunes we do, and the trade-off on price and sound is very good
- Price - you can get one of these new for under $ - you can't say that for Nords, Hammonds, or any other clonewheel out there. Used? Even cheaper.

Could it have a better distortion? Sure. More control over EQ? Would be nice. Would it have been good to include a second footswitch so you could trigger fast/slow rotary? Absolutely (although you can assign that to the sustain pedal). But those "nice to have," for me, are not essential, and I can make the VR-09 sound like a rig worth 2 to 3 times its price.

But I will say this: I'm not embarassed when people see me with such a small compact rig supporting a great band. They expect to see at least two keyboards stacked - but the VR-09 has been all I have needed for the last 6 1/2 years and the only thing I could wish for is a few more keys (which the VR-730 has).
Rated 5/5

Roland V-Combo VR-09-B 61 key is awesome!!

This keyboard has great sound. It does duplicate the sound of the rotary (fast and slow) of a Leslie Cabinet of a Hammond Organ. It has many other sounds as well such as piano, synth, strings and many more.
Music background: Pianist for years in churches as well as a piano teacher.
Rated 5/5

PERFECT for me

Around Christmas, a friend asked if I was getting new toys for the holiday. At that time, I wasn't planning on it. My first gigging keyboard ('82) was a Roland RS-09. I've also owned their GR-700, GR-30, and GR-55 guitar synths. I'm a Roland fan, and he knew that. After telling him what I thought would be my dream keyboard (drawbar organ with great synth and piano sounds, 61 touch/ velocity sensitive keys), he pointed me to the Roland VR-09.

I've been playing a Roland JX-8P with programming module (PG-800 - utterly cool, gives all parameters knobs and sliders!) since '87. The control surface has become largely unresponsive (volume, pitch bend interval, portamento speed, and more), and its output is so low that the preamp in my recording interface has to be MAXXED in order to have a decent (still not HIGH) recording level. I've been controlling a Roland JV-1010 module (loaded with their Keyboards of the '60s and '70's module) as my main audio source, except when I want '80s synth tones ('cause THAT'S what IT does!). The stereo output of the JV-1010 goes into a Boss RT-20 stereo rotary speaker emulator (GREAT unit, with speed controls for tweeter and woofer, ramp up and ramp down times, several overdriven amp tones and dual footswitches).

I bought the VR-09 from Sweetwater; the combination of a 2G drive of proprietary registrations (presets) plus 48-month free financing (and the candy!) earned my business. They have a great demo of the presets by the guy who wrote them. Since I'm NOT capable of the independent left hand/ right hand stuff, a lot of these registrations aren't useful to me, but they all sound awesome.

I'm not going to go over ALL the features, but I'll give you both pros and cons.

First of all, I LOVE this synth. It's a keeper, as it does EXACTLY what I described to my friend as being my "dream synth", and it's honestly NOT expensive for what you get. The organs all sound fantastic, and to ME, very real. Having the Leslie controls on the pitch bend wheel is SO much more organic than stomping on a pedal – ESPECIALLY braking. (On the RT-20 you have to press BOTH footswitches at the same time. The left footswitch is effect on/ bypass; the right footswitch is FAST/SLOW toggle. I can't tell you how many times I've scrapped a take because of BYPASSING the effect instead of braking. UGH!) Push the bend wheel either direction to toggle fast/slow, push it forward (LFO mode) to brake.
I've never had a drawbar organ, but it's pretty intuitive, and I'll continue learning how to use them to greatest effect. I've always LOVED that sound, going from dark to full-stops, and simply doing that is very natural. This has 9 drawbars – 16', 5 1/3', 8', 4', 2 2/3', 2, 1 3/5', 1 1/3' and 1', and they're color coordinated with white indicating the even harmonics. For organ parameters, there are adjustments for leakage, key click on AND off, percussion (2nd and 3rd on/off, decay fast/slow, volume soft/normal). There are three basic types of organ - rock, jazz, and transistor – these cover pretty much the spectrum (pipe organ is also there, but not in the normal organ block). There are 3 versions of Leslie, (two of which have separate rise and fall speeds for both woofer and tweeter, one only has acceleration) and Roland's famous Chorus and Vibrato effects.

The pianos are absolutely lovely. I'm spending far more time playing piano than I ever have, because the sounds are just so rich and inviting. There is absolutely no editing of these patches as far as I can tell, though you can apply any of the onboard effects.

The VR-09 has a control interface for an iPad. This requires a network adapter card to be inserted in the USB A slot near the modulation/ pitch bend wheel. Being an older synth (these came out in 2013), I'm not sure if it will work with all of the adapters available (the first one I tried which I already had didn't work), so I found the recommended D-link (new-old-stock) for cheap. The PG-800 was an incredibly useful tool for creating sounds on the JX-8P, and I swore I'd never get into menu-diving again. The VR-09 doesn't have a hardware-based editor, but the iPad controller software is incredibly useful. My iPad is 3rd Gen (the last with the LOD connector), and even IT will run the app. While this SOUNDS awesome, it's nowhere near as useful as a dedicated hardware controller, but again, is light years better than menu-diving.

While the concept of the iPad control is attractive, it simply lacks the intuitiveness of conventional analog controls. Turning a knob clockwise is best accomplished by swiping up, which isn't difficult, but also isn't natural. Most touchscreen control interfaces behave this way, so if you're used to it, you'll be fine. Other than that, though, I have no complaints. There are separate tabs for organ and synth. All of the above-mentioned organ parameters are laid out plainly.

For synth control, it's well-thought-out. Each of the three oscillators can be selected, and you have control of waveform, pitch, detune, PWM, PW, modulation, attack, and decay. The filter section gives cutoff, resonance, key follow, multiple modes to choose from, slope, ADSR, and envelope depth, and the amplitude section has pan, level, velocity sensitivity and ADSR. There's a general section for unison, mono/ poly, portamento on/off and time, wave shape and tone level. There's an LFO tab with Modulation LFO, waveshape, tempo sync, rate, and the LFO mod wheel's pitch bend depth, filter depth and amp depth. LFO includes all above (except mod wheel) plus fade time. Not ALL parameters are always available, on some registrations some oscillators can't even be accessed. The screen makes it pretty clear what is, and what is not, available for editing at any time.

For gigging synth players, I suppose you could use the iPad interface, but much more importantly, the keyboard itself has drawbars dedicated to attack, decay, release (why no sustain? – there are NINE drawbars!), CUTOFF and RESONANCE. So the live-performance parameters that I want to control are right on the board at your fingertips. The controls I miss most, and don't understand why they're NOT included right next to the mod wheel, are portamento on/off and rate and bend wheel pitch depth.

Then there are the effects. There are single-knob controls for overdrive, tone (master tone knob), compressor, reverb, delay, and MFX (each registration is assigned something to MFX – turn this knob to engage). There are LOADS and LOADS of effects. Reverb surfaces and types, delay types, time-based effects, way too many to list. Most are useful, but here is one of my biggest complaints: there are virtually NO parameter controls. I use the tremolo on the piano (Riders On The Storm), and I think it sounds wonderful. Turning the knob increases intensity, speed and depth. These really SHOULD be individually adjustable. Same for delay, more knob increases time and regeneration. It's a stupid quirk that really irritates me. But guess what – I've NEVER HAD EFFECTS for my keys before! So yes, I consider this a negative, but at least it HAS reverbs, delays, modulation and more. And as I said, I find most of the effects useful, even if they're not totally tweakable.

Other things it just does wrong: the keyboard splitting is easy, but if you apply a rotary speaker, or any effect to the upper manual, the lower one gets the same settings. So doing Deep Purple's "Hush" (not that I can PLAY it!), you can set the drawbars for the two different manuals easily, but they both whirl at the same rate and have the same dirt. (I know a B3 would too, but it seems stupid to me.)

There's an onboard rhythm section I've never used. I HAVE used the looper, which works well, but still trips me up (I haven't done it enough to get that comfortable with it, and forget how to engage/ disengage, etc.).

The D-Beam controller can be set to control several different things. I use it only for effects, though it can do more. The wheel brake for organ is amazing. I guess the D-Beam is really there just for showmanship – instead of using the mod wheel, you can dramatically wave your hand in the air. If that's your thing, this does it…

I haven't written a registration yet. Between the factory defaults and the Sweetwater bonus registrations, I just haven't stopped PLAYING long enough to create my own sound from the ground up.

Oh, and it weighs TWELVE POUNDS. It FEELS even lighter than that – picking it up, I swear I've had basses heavier. The JX-8P weighs a heck of a lot more. The VR-09 CAN run from batteries if you don't want to get AC power to it.

I'm honestly thinking that this and the IK Multimedia UNO Synth Pro would be an incredible gigging rig that would give a synthesist tremendous power in a rather tidy two-tier format. If only I had a three-tier keyboard stand in the studio…
Music background: Multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, keys)
Rated 5/5

VR09B rocks.

I love this board. Great sounds and easy to navigate and add effects on the fly T. J. Jackson is great to work with as well as the tech department. Sweetwater is awesome!!
Rated 5/5

I'm 18 again.

I'm a 60's garage band keyboardist and I played a Farfisa Combo Compact. Since then I've owned a few Yamaha Psr keyboards that were ok but did not have the sounds I was looking for or the versatility. Not having ever owned a Roland I took a chance and drove out to Sweetwater and checked it out in person. The guys there were very helpful but wasn't till I recieved mine and took it out of the box that I was totally blown away. The great and numerous sounds and the ease of use and it's versatility, well all I can say is I feel 18 again!
Music background: 60's keyboardist

Simply put, modern electronic music wouldn't exist without Roland. Many of the electronic musicians here at Sweetwater cut our teeth on TR Rhythm machines and fondly remember programming our first TB-303s. We owe a good part of our careers to this amazing and innovative company. It's been fun to watch and grow right alongside Roland, as they've introduced wave after wave of revolutionary keyboards, digital pianos, and more. For example, Roland's V-Drum Kits continuously redefine the possibilities of electronic drums, beginning with SuperNATURAL technology to the latest Prismatic Sound Modeling. We're huge fans, and we'd love to tell you all about them. Whether you want a pocket-sized synth or a cutting-edge video mixer, if Roland makes it, then Sweetwater is 100% behind it.

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